Screen Australia Funded Short Film ‘The Lost Thing’ Awarded an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at 2011 Academy Awards

Screen Australia Funded Short Film 'The Lost Thing' Awarded an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at 2011 Academy Awards

Directed and written by Shaun Tan and also directed by Andrew Ruhemann, The Lost Thing is about a boy and a strange creature he finds on the beach. The film was produced by Sophie Byrne of Melbourne’s Passion Pictures, and features the vocal talents of Australian comedian Tim Minchin.

“Winning an Oscar® offers our Australian filmmakers fantastic recognition on the world stage,” said Screen Australia Chief Executive Officer Ruth Harley. “We are immensely proud of this remarkable achievement. Australian’s have a rich history in the short animation category at the Oscars® with Adam Elliot’s win with Harvie Krumpet in 2003 along with a number of nominations over the years. I think it demonstrates the incredible calibre of talent we have in the animation industry,” said Dr Harley.

The Lost Thing was supported under Screen Australia’s Talent Escalator program for short animation production. The program aims to provide a means of career progression for leading emerging animation talent, supporting the new generation of creative storytellers in this field.

The Oscar® comes on the back of a long line of domestic accolades for the film. The Lost Thing has picked up a swathe of international awards including the award for best Australian film at Flickerfest Australia’s only Academy Award® accredited short film festival. The film also took short animation awards at the AFI Awards, Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals and the IF Awards. Overseas it won the prestigious Cristal at the Annecy International Animation Festival.

The Lost Thing is available on DVD from Madman Entertainment.

The 2011 Academy Awards have just taken place in Los Angeles and a number of Australians were nominated for awards. Three other Australian’s also took out Oscars® at the 83rd Awards: producer Emile Sherman’s film The King’s Speech won the Oscar® for Best Picture, Kirk Baxter received an Oscar® for Film Editing on The Social Network, and Dave Elsey took home an Oscar® for Makeup on The Wolfman.

The Lost ThingWebsitehttp://thelostthing.com/Directors Shaun Tan, Andrew RuhemannProducer Sophie ByrneWriter Shaun TanCast Tim Minchin (voice)Sales Madman Entertainment madman@madman.com.auSynopsis A boy discovers a bizarre looking creature while out collecting bottle tops at the beach. Realising it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but is met with indifference from everyone else, who barely notice its presence, each unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to their day-to-day lives. For reasons he does not explain, the boy empathises with the creature, and sets out to find a ‘place’ for it.